BARBS1,

Life in Oz is different to SA in many ways, not better or worse. The thing that tips the scale is of course the crime or lack of violent crime here in Oz. You have to remember that once the excitement of moving countries or the honeymoon period wears off and you are settled in a job things very quickly become the same. Its the people and culture you miss.

I have travelled a lot and am yet to find a country as beautiful as SA, I love the wild life that you cannot get anywhere else in the world and the different vegetation etc. if you have seen the movie Blood Diamond when Leonardo DiCaprio grabs a hand full of sand and says "the soil of Africa is in your blood" or something like that well that’s it, when you leave you will leave a huge part of you behind. Don’t come to Oz looking for that because it’s not here or in any other country for that matter.

Then Oz has some of the most outstanding beaches I have seen. I holidayed on the Whitsunday Islands last December and thought it was fantastic. The people and lifestyle here in Brisbane are/is fantastic.

I moved here from the UK for the weather and I did suffer in the beginning with the loss of earning power. You need to remember that although Brisbane is growing if you work in a corporate environment, like Durban used to be a great place to live the money was in JHB here its in Sydney or Melbourne. I would say that in most industries other than building the ratio of jobs in Sydney and Melbourne to Brisbane is 5:1 probably revered in building.

Brisbane is suffering a bit with the influx of people into Queensland (about 1500 people a week last year) price of property especially renting had increase exponentially and land lords are taking advantage of the demand and not always presenting the houses in the best state because they know that renters will take it cause its all they can get. Also the public transport is suffering with the overload although for people from SA any public transport is better then what they had.

My family settled in very easily with 2 teenage kids I expected a difficult time. The sporting facilities here are great and difficult not to get involved it something. We found good schools with the help of SA friends that live close by.

Interesting I heard on the news here last week that 1 in 5 people in Brisbane were not born in Oz and on the gold coast its 1 in 4 so you wont be the only one with an odd accent.

cheers
barrow